Out from under the boardwalk

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The front bar of the Espy Hotel, part of a photo exhibition on St Kilda by Bindi Cole, Elizabeth Clancy and Kylie-Rose DouglasPhoto: Supplied

Different faces make up the same old magical St Kilda,
writes Rachel Wells.

Photographer Bindi Cole was just a couple of days old when her
mother bought her home to a small apartment above what is now
Banjo's Bakehouse in Acland Street, St Kilda. She remained in the
colourful bayside suburb for almost 30 years, only moving last year
to a more affordable area.

"I can't afford to live there any more," Cole says. "It just
goes to show how much it's changed. My grandmother was a single
mother with three kids, and she lived right on Beaconsfield
Parade," she says with a laugh.

"Back then it was a place for single parents, drug addicts and
artists. There wasn't the money and the family life that there is
there now," says Cole, although she's quick to add that the seedy
underbelly hasn't disappeared.

Early last year Cole teamed up with fellow photography students
Elizabeth Clancy and Kylie-Rose Douglas (now graduates) to capture
on film "the changing cultural face" of St Kilda.

Twelve months and 2000 photographs later, the trio have just
opened their first exhibition, Same Place, Different Face,
at the St Kilda Memorial Hall.

Comprising 100 photographs, including historic images dating
back to the late 1800s, the exhibition is a celebration of the
colour and diversity of the bayside suburb that was first developed
in the early 1840s. It incorporates images of some of the suburb's
best-known landmarks - Luna Park, the Espy and the Acland Street
cake shops, as well as the sex workers and the boarding houses that
are just as representative of the eclectic St Kilda lifestyle. The
trio say the highlight of the project was meeting the characters
who inhabit the suburb.

"We met so many fabulous people, from the workers down at the
Sacred Heart Mission, the prostitutes, artists and musicians, to
the crazy guys down at the Surf Life Saving Club, the backpackers
and the old cake shop owners," says Clancy.

The women managed to capture these personalities in a 17-minute
multimedia slide show that accompanies the exhibition. It features
about 400 images and some Super-8 film footage, interspersed with
interviews with locals.

"They had to be included, because that's what makes St Kilda
such a colourful place. It's the people - the rich living alongside
the poor and the backpackers moving among the locals," says
Clancy.